A Buddha statue stolen in 2012 and taken to South Korea was returned to a temple on Tsushima, an island in Nagasaki Prefecture, on Monday.
A ritual was held at Kannonji Temple to mark the return of the Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue after more than 12 years.
The statue was stolen by a South Korean criminal group in October 2012, and was later recovered by the country's investigative authorities. However, a South Korean temple claimed ownership of the seated statue, insisting that it had been looted by "wako" Japanese pirates in the 14th century.
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